Wind mills in a large corn field. Source from Zermie, flickr.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are organisms that have been genetically modified through the altering of the genes. The newly modified organism aims to give the original organism new characteristics such as being disease resistance or pest resistance.
There have been several benefits to the health that has been found, and the agricultural industry has improved through the planting of GMO due to the decrease in the deterioration of crops and livestocks.
Source from Darwin Bell, flickr.
However, there are also many side effects that GMO brings. These include allergic reactions and decreased antibiotic efficacy in humans. In addition, another prevalent problem is that the pest resistance elements found in some of these GMOs are known to cause animals that feed on it to die. For example, the bees that feeds on the nectar and pollen and these GMO plants with pest resistance qualities may suffer from side effects such as losing the ability to navigate their way home.
Another aspect of crop farming is that farmers are generally friendly towards bees as they are perceived bees to be the pollinators that encourage more healthy growth and increase reproduction of the crops. However, this relationship between farmers and bees may only be a one-sided affair as the large industrial plantations usually does more harm than good to the bees. One reason to this is because of the nutrition that bees require. Similar to humans, honey bees require a variety of pollen and nectar from various plants in order to attain their nutritional needs. However, a large plantation that only has one single kind of crop denies the bees of this. Therefore, causing the bees to develop malnutrition overtime, which results in the drop in their immunity and increase in susceptibility to various viruses and eventually death.